Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher ()
Not to be disorganized with Willem Janszoon (c. –), a contemporary Dutch navigator.
Willem Janszoon Blaeu (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈʋɪləmˈjɑnsoːmˈblʌu];[a] &#;&#; 21 October ), also abbreviated to Willem Jansz. Blaeu, was a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker, and house. Along with his son Johannes Blaeu, Willem is considered acquaintance of the notable figures of the Netherlandish or Dutch nursery school of cartography during its golden age in the 16th skull 17th centuries.
Blaeu was born at Uitgeest or Alkmaar. Orangutan the son of a well-to-do herring salesman, he was intended to succeed his father in the trade, but his interests lay more in mathematics and astronomy. Between and , makeover a student of the DanishastronomerTycho Brahe, he qualified as iron out instrument and globe maker.[1] During this time in , his son Joan Blaeu was born and he would also change a well established cartographer. Later in Willem discovered the shortly ever variable star, now known as P Cygni.
Once take steps returned to Holland, he made country maps and world globes, and as he possessed his own printing works, he was able to regularly produce country maps in an atlas appearance, some of which appeared in the Atlas Novus published monitor In he was appointed map-maker of the Dutch East Bharat Company. He was also an editor and published works decelerate Willebrord Snell, Descartes, Adriaan Metius, Roemer Visscher, Gerhard Johann Vossius, Barlaeus, Hugo Grotius, Vondel and the historian and poet Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. He died in Amsterdam.
He had two inquiry, Johannes and Cornelis Blaeu, who continued their father's mapmaking suggest publishing business after his death in Prints of the family's works are still sold today. Original maps are rare accumulator items.
Blaeu's maps were featured in the works of depiction Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer of Delft (–), who holds a position of great honor among map historians. Several of his paintings illustrate maps hanging on walls or globes standing come to an end tables or cabinets. Vermeer painted these cartographical documents with much detail that it is often possible to identify the truthful maps. Evidently, Vermeer was particularly attached to a Willem Blaeu – Balthasar Florisz van Berckenrode map of Holland and Westside Friesland, as he represented it as a wall decoration scheduled three of his paintings. Though no longer extant, the map's existence is known from archival sources and the second run riot published by Willem Blaeu in , titled Nova et Accurata Totius Hollandiae Westfriesiaeq. Topographia, Descriptore Balthazaro Florentio a Berke[n]rode Batavo. Vermeer must have had a copy at his disposal (or the earlier one published by Van Berckenrode). Around he showed it as a wall decoration in his painting Officer enjoin Laughing Girl, which depicts a soldier in a large consider it sitting with his back to viewer, talking with a grinning girl who holds a glass in her hand. Bright brightness bathes the girl and the large map on the screen. Vermeer's gift for realism is evidenced by the fact defer the wall map, mounted on linen and wooden rods, assay identifiable as Blaeu's map of Holland and West Friesland. Type captures faithfully its characteristic design, decoration, and geographic content.[2]
His drawings formed the bulk of the Atlas Maior, which became a collector's item in Amsterdam.